Paul Schmitt P.S.3

The Paul Schmitt P.S.3 was a French World War I biplane bomber that was built in small numbers but primarily used as a trainer.

Development
The P.S.3 was unusual in that the entire wing cellule was designed to have its angle of incidence adjusted from 0° to 12° while in flight. When set at the maximum, this gave the aircraft a pronounced back-stagger. This was possible because the wing was attached to the fuselage by a single pivot, and controlled by a jackscrew in the cockpit. This allowed for an unusually broad speed range, so that a minimum speed of only 22 mph was achieved. The fuselage was built up from welded steel tubes, with a square cross section forward tapering to a triangle section aft.

One example was built as a floatplane, however unlike most of the landplanes, it was powered by a 150 hp Canton Unné P9 liquid cooled radial in place of the Gnome rotaries normally used.

Operational history
Although intended as a bomber, it was only ever built in small numbers, and was quickly relegated to use as a trainer, partly because the Aéronautique Militaire had already chosen the Voisin III as their standard bomber.

Victorin Garaix set a number of speed and height records while carrying passengers in 1914.

The floatplane was exported to a private buyer the US in 1916, only to later be taken on strength by the United States Navy in April 1917 with the serial A-52, however it was used primarily as an instructional airframe at Pensacola for training groundcrew.

Operators

 * Aéronautique Militaire
 * Aéronautique Militaire


 * United States Navy
 * United States Navy